Figure 1. The
lag-2p:gfp marker clearly labels the Distal Tip Cells at the leading edge of the developing C elegans gonad and allows gonad growth to be mapped relative to a proxy for animal length.:A) A time course series of brightfield DIC/ GFP merged photomicrographs of L1 (i-ii), L2 (iii), L3 (iv+v), L4 (vi) and young adult hermaphrodite (vii). White arrowheads highlight the DTCs in all images. In vii the black arrowhead and arrow point to the vulva/ mid-point and the pharynx-intestine junction, respectively. Animals i through iii were captured at 400x magnification; animals iv through vii were captured at 200x magnification. Scale bar is 50 microns. Head is to the left and ventral to the bottom in all images. B) Total gonad length from DTC to DTC in mm by pharynx-vulval length (PVL) in mm. Circles are individual animals, coloured by stage. The piecewise regression model has been overlaid as a thick black line using the segmented R package (Muggeo 2008). The breakpoint and associated 95% confidence interval are shown in grey at the bottom of the graph.